Last nights play, Hellman vs. Cavett, at the Abingdon Boys School Theatre, was fun to watch. Dick Cavett was charming reprising his role as a television host who got in the middle of the Hellman v. McCarthy duel. The play stays close to what actually happened, except for a confrontation scene in which Hellman and McCarthy trade insults. Hellman thinks McCarthy has come to apologize for calling Hellman a liar on national television, and McCarthy thinks she has come just to placate Hellman, who will then drop the lawsuit against her. The scene is a plausible rendition of what the two women would have said to one another, although they never met after Hellman filed her lawsuit. And of course the scene satisfies the audiences yearning to see these two contestants fight it out. Afterwards, there was a q and a with the actors, and I had an opportunity to get in a few exchanges with Cavett, who seemed genuinely interested in what I had to say since I had dealt with the attorneys for both women. Indeed, I have a dramatic scene in my Hellman biography in which I put Hellmans attorney, Ephraim London, on the stand, so to speak.
Posted on: Fri, 28 Mar 2014 11:01:23 +0000